Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann WolfgangGoethetə/; German: ; 28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German writer and statesman. His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, more than 10,000 letters, and nearly 3,000 drawings by him exist...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth28 August 1749
CountryGermany
When all is said the greatest action is to limit and isolate one's self.
I find the great thing in this world is, not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.
What chance gathers she easily scatters. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together.
To be loved for what one is, is the greatest exception. The great majority love in others only what they lend him, their own selves, their version of him.
Nature alone is illimitably rich, and Nature alone forms the great artist.
For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him, he must regard himself as greater than he is
The persons born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
Ambition and love are the wings to great deeds.
A collection of anecdotes and maxims is the greatest of treasures for the man of the world, for he knows how to intersperse conversation with the former in fit places, and to recollect the latter on proper occasions
I respect the man who knows distinctly what he wishes. The greater part of all mischief in the world arises from the fact that men do not sufficiently understand their own aims. They have undertaken to build a tower, and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to erect a hut.
He alone is great and happy who requires neither to command nor to obey in order to secure his being of some importance in this world
The greatest genius will never be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources.
All greatness in the world came about because someone did more than he had to do.
To make an epoch in the world, two conditions are manifestly essential-a good head and a great inheritance.